Woo! Just got the game and LOVE it! Incredible!

[MikeyBugs95 29]

I am a huge fan of SC4 so when I heard this game was coming... I was raring to get it. Unfortunately I couldn't afford it until EA offered a 50% discount on the Complete Edition that I got it. Had some trouble trying to play it at first but I finally got it running. I kept telling myself that I wouldn't get addicted to it but now that I've played it, it looks like that won't hold true. I already have one city of over 60k and now I see to expand to other cities.

My sister is a big fan of The Sims series (I also tried playing it once before too, not my style) so when she and I both saw the game, we instantly on thought of the Sims... I keep saying that if EA and Maxis would make a combined game that they'd have a hit.

Either way, I love the game now (even though the laptop and desktop I have it on aren't really suitable for the game...) and my time will definitely be a bit more full now... I'll be trying to make a city log here like I tried with SC4 but failed miserably at. Right now I'll also be posting a problem in the Problems forum as I do have one.. Or two..

[Peorth 18]

Glad to hear you're enjoying the game. It's by far not a perfect game but I find it enjoyable to play too and you'll eventually get used to it's quirks, idiosyncrasies and frustrations as with any of the previous Simcity versions. I remember back when I was playing SC4 that my main gripe was the frequent dilapidation, with this latest incarnation it's mostly the limited space to work with.

[MikeyBugs95 29]

Yes... The very limited space. I have another city on my old desktop and that's small too. Both have almost reached the limits of outward expansion. In SC4 I never noticed too dilapidation (except of course in my poorly run cities ) but I agree, it would be nice to have cities the size of the large maps with the large regions of SC4.

[TheCraftKid 52]

It's excellent you're enjoying the game. Your attitude was completely different than what I thought going into the game: "Oh my God I need to get this game, no matter what the cost."

 

You'll come to understand all of the quirks with the game and eventually realize how amazing the game is in its own nature. Sure, there are some setbacks to the base game, but this reboot of the SimCity franchise is one that will stay around for a while

 

Any screenshots of your city(ies)?

[MikeyBugs95 29]

Yeah I'm finding some quirks as I go. I found out one solution to my troubles involving RCI - add more parks. Unfortunately I seem to still play it like I played SimCity 4. While that style was proficient at creating cities, I'm finding out quickly that that style won't necessarily work in this ititeration. But it still escapes me how to create efficient cities that interact with one another.

I've made a few small one, and one larger one thats getting there. But I haven't taken any screenshots yet. All in short time though.

[Xenocity 343]

Despite the hate for this game, it has the best simulation to date.

This game became decent around update 6.

 

I have trouble going back to Simcity 4 and 2000, due to the dated simulations and data views.

[iRowzie 16]

Glad to hear you're enjoying SimCity! But brothers had SimCity 4, I believe, but I've never actually played it. I have SC2013, which I am perfectly okay with. I'd probably like SC2013 more than SC4, but I don't know. What's SC4 like?

[TheCraftKid 52]

Despite the hate for this game, it has the best simulation to date.

This game became decent around update 6.

 

I have trouble going back to Simcity 4 and 2000, due to the dated simulations and data views.

 

Ditto!

[crishy 57]

Glad to hear you're enjoying SimCity! But brothers had SimCity 4, I believe, but I've never actually played it. I have SC2013, which I am perfectly okay with. I'd probably like SC2013 more than SC4, but I don't know. What's SC4 like?

 

My opinion but miles ahead of SC13.

 

SC is decent and right for casual play but gets boring very fast given the small size available to work with. I can easily fill an entire SC13 region in a day or two and have a lot of trouble filling a large SC4 city in the same period of time. If you decide to get a more indepth city building experience then you might consider borrowing that copy for you.

 

Data Views and full 3D gameplay with curved and elevated roads (as opposed to being limited to grids and 4 different angles in SC4) are the only areas that I think SC is better than SC4. The roads aspect can be fixed with some creativity and to an extent with the NAM, the other two may or may not be a decision maker.

[MikeyBugs95 29]

I have to agree and disagree with crishy here. While SC'13 is miles ahead of SC4, it's also miles behind. Unfortunately there's the limited size. I find that many times, there's an advisor telling me that I need to zone more residential because there's not enough shoppers, but I can't expand out anymore. I find myself saying "come on... Build up already..." So that's a major drawback. Maybe, EA and Maxis can find a way to solve the problems they run into and make larger cities, I mean, they made Offline mode, didn't they?

I really like SC4 because of the simplicity of it, yet while being highly complex. It offers great options yet is rather slim. It's not over the top but can be extravagant. I still think that it's one of the best city-building sims that could be had. I do agree that both games lack. But what each other lacks, the other one makes up for, I guess. With this new iteration of the series, I actually see a close resemblance to The Sims series. It is quite striking the way everything is built that brings me to that point. Whereas in SC4 everything was kind of blueprint/3D model-ish, the new SC'13 is more gamey-like.

[Peorth 18]

I find that many times, there's an advisor telling me that I need to zone more residential because there's not enough shoppers, but I can't expand out anymore. I find myself saying "come on... Build up already..."

 

Indeed, this is the most common (and most nagging) problem for me although the message is not about shoppers but workers. The problem not only lies in the small city size (nowhere to expand the residential) nor in the slow rate of density increase but rather in screwed up RCI balance. In the first place, every city has an absurdly small working segment of around 10% of the total population. My experience is that increases in building density of work zones, particularly industrial ones, tends to outpace the additional supply provided by additional zoning and residential density increase.

 

I'm currently working with mostly mature cities with an Arcology partly alleviating worker shortages. However for the next city I'll build I will deliberately constrain work zone density (but just zoning low or medium density roads) to prevent excessive demand for workers.

[iRowzie 16]

Well, thanks. I'd like to try SC4, but I asked for SC2013 for Christmas this year. Oops! Lol. But, thanks. I'll defiantly consider trying SC4.

[Xenocity 343]

Well, thanks. I'd like to try SC4, but I asked for SC2013 for Christmas this year. Oops! Lol. But, thanks. I'll defiantly consider trying SC4.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/24780/

 

It's $5 for Simcity 4 Deluxe currently on Steam.

 

The though beware the game itself broken and requires mods such as NAM to make it playable.

The simulation is riddled with issues that makes you want to give up.

The data view is awful and makes addressing issues in you city that much harder.

Region interconnectivity isn't as good.

 

Though on positive, you have a large amount of room to build and can use customized maps.

 

It's a decent city builder running on an awful city simulator.

[crishy 57]

SC4 is definitively playable without any mods but it does greatly benefit from them. The NAM in particular. Played years without any.

 

Data view in SC4 is outdated and less user friendly than in SC13 but does its job. Never had any problems with it. I do have more fun with SC13's but at the end of the day most people play either game to build cities first and foremost, and not to see them through data views.

 

Both games have issues with simulation (the definition of which may vary). If it is just about letting the city grow and develop, both suffer from lag and performance issues as one starts to fill the city completely. SC4 does have more traffic issues that are mostly fixed with the NAM.

 

Both are city builder simulators that are not remotely realistic. SC13's way of doing it is more newbie friendly out of the box (i.e. easier) and offers elevated and curved roads at the cost of giving up a lot of creative and customization control elsewhere (farms, hydro, transit options, terraforming, individual zone densities, etc etc). Mods do offer an easy way out regarding most simulation variables.

 

Cities in SC13 do indeed rely more of each other than in SC4 in order to make the region (and each city) better overall (not necessarily in a realistic way) - one may or may not care about that. Ironically, in the other hand, regions are visually more interconnected in SC4 because you can actually create a single metro area instead of grown plots in empty regions.

 

Large cities or contiguous metropolitan areas in SC4 do appear blander in large skyscrapers areas, and in particular commercial ones - because of the lack of variety of content together with bigger maps, so it may require some user made content to make these regions more visually appealing. Unless you do not mind a forest of Wren and Pedriana offices throughout an entire map if you fancy a fully high density map. Some creative mixing of commercial and residential zones can be made to minimize this problem (and will fix job commute issues too).

 

Out of the box I consider both games more or less on par, I personally give the edge to SC4 because of larger cities and regions and more customization controls, though SC13 may be better for casuals who want nicer looks and a smoother "simulation". If we involve mods, SC4 blows SC13 by far (because of the time advantage of course) - give a few years and maybe SC13 will catch up.

[MikeyBugs95 29]

I think Xenocity is being a bit harsh. It's a good game all in game. Broken? Not really. The game is highly playable from the start. It's just an older sim and now it's showing its age. Still a very good game though. Unlike SC2013, cities aren't not too dependent on each other to thrive, you could have an entire region on 15 or more cities and only play one and you'll be able to have a fully functional and active and growing city. Yes, it is always better to have more cities around it as it benefits all in the long run but it isn't as pertinent as in SC2013. Like crishy said SC4 is by far, a more creative sim as you can terraform regions and cities, you could use create your own regions, you could plant forests, and basically do a lot more. And yes you also have the YEARS of user made content. But also given the same amount of time, there may be a similar amount of custom content available for SC13. In SC4,you are more restricted to a grid playstyle but it can be overcome easily by creative placement. Unfortunately, as your city develops, it'll spawn buildings of "random" types all over the place. A few will not spawn randomly and will just start spawning, literally, everywhere. But, you also get to place your own sim in the game and watch them live their lives through a 3/4 view on the world of SimCity!

I believe that, frankly, each game has its highs and lows and middles. In my opinion one game makes up for what the other lacks. In SC4 you get to be creative with land while in SC13 you get to be creative with road placement. Whereas one is a crisper sim, the other gets much bigger regions. Where one has a better UI, the other had some more zoning options with agriculture. Each one seems to have a high point where the other has a low point.

[Akeem J Lenoir 9]

I'd have to disagree that the cities rely more on one another in SC2013 than in SC4. In fact, I'd venture to say the exact opposite. A major issue plaguing SC2013 is the inflated population. The simulation in SC2013 works like SC4 it comes to the inflated population, while the actual agents, the part of the simulation that was supposed to make SC2013 superior to SC4, is only representative to about 20% of the total population.

 

The proof is in the data, or the data view specifically. You ever notice how in a city of 100,000, only about 10% are actually working, while less than 10% are going to schools, visiting parks and landmarks? That's because those numbers represent the actual agents in the city. On the contrary, anything having to do with city specialization, referring to visitors, shoppers, and more so casino patrons, seems to show an that inflated number, though it's all based on an SC4-style calculation, rather than actual agents. Not to mention schools, colleges and universities specifically... as regional agents ignore these altogether. 

 

Moreover, I've tried quite a few times to build a commercial only city, only for it to crash despite having 300,000 sims in the region. In the commercial city, I'd always get the infamous "not enough shoppers" message. Likewise, in the industrial only city, I get the "not enough places to ship freight" message. In the residential only cities, I always faced an unemployment crisis, despite having tons of jobs in neighboring cities. This is because the inflated population doesn't commute to other cities in the region. In order to have successful cities, you'd have to all RCI.

 

Nevertheless, applying the SC4 simulation concept to the SC2013 region, which is already being done on the city level, may solve the issue. Because of this, though, SC4 offers the option... key word... option... to allow your cities rely on one another, more or less, in my opinion.    

[iRowzie 16]

Hmm.. I have six dollars left on my steam account, and I'd like to try SC4. I mean the graphics aren't my cup of tea(And honestly, I don't really like tea. Just using it as a metaphor!), but that's not really what bothers me. I like how there are bigger maps because when I play SC2013 I get bored quickly because there's not a lot to do and not a lot of mods to play with. But I really want SC4....

[Xenocity 343]

I think Xenocity is being a bit harsh. It's a good game all in game. Broken? Not really. The game is highly playable from the start (not true at all).

I'm being honest.

I've played SC4 for 11 years now.

Before NAM, your sims wouldn't travel more than few titles to get to work, school, shopping, healthcare, etc...

This would lead to your Sims abandoning residential zones after a few simulated months, complaining about a lack jobs, commercial zones, and/or public services.

Thus your city's population would regularly go through boom and bust.

This literally made Simcity 4 near impossible to have functioning city that isn't a small title.

Commercial and industry would go through a cycle of development and abandonment due to the frieght, lack of workers (even though your city has tons of unemloyed sims), and/or lack of customers.

This was the first of two critical errors in the game that left the game barely playable for medium and large cities.

It also grealty impacted the regional economy.

 

Unlike SC2013, cities aren't not too dependent on each other to thrive, you could have an entire region on 15 or more cities and only play one and you'll be able to have a fully functional and active and growing city (not true either). Yes, it is always better to have more cities around it as it benefits all in the long run but it isn't as pertinent as in SC2013.

Second major error is the demand caps that requires you to build up the regions.

This first demanad cap is ~50k, which will cause the full RCI to crash leading to a hugely negative demand until your city's population hits ~30k.

The second demand cap is ~200k. which does the exact samething and causes your population to crash down to ~150k.

I think there is a third demand cap.

This means no city on it's own in a region can sustain a population of 50k+.

Cities have to be interconnected to grow beyond the demand caps.

You cannot turn off the demand caps at all.

Simcity 2013 doesn't have these demand caps and does not mandate interconnected regions.

They are optional (though on by default).

You can stop your cities in Simcity 2013 from sharing nearly everything.

The only things that cannot be turned off are workers, shoppers, and tourists (many of them come from no where).

 

But also given the same amount of time, there may be a similar amount of custom content available for SC13. In SC4,you are more restricted to a grid playstyle but it can be overcome easily by creative placement. Unfortunately, as your city develops, it'll spawn buildings of "random" types all over the place. A few will not spawn randomly and will just start spawning, literally, everywhere. But, you also get to place your own sim in the game and watch them live their lives through a 3/4 view on the world of SimCity!

There is already a lot of mods and custom content for Simcity 2013.

It is much easier to mod Simcity 2013, because Maxis made it very easy to mod and gave tools the out.

You can download mods that modify the simulation and expand the boundries of your cities.

There are mods that allow you to put a McDonalds and other original ploppable.

There are mods that allow you to put different kinds of roads in your city that aren't in the main game, including one ways and highways.

There is a mod that turns the Mangavel rails into subways.

etc...

 

Simtropolis alone has over 500+ mods for Simcity 2013 and the number grows every month.

This is much faster rate than Simcity 4 modding.

 

Lastly Simcity 4 is horribly unoptimized causing it to crash frequently even on high end hardware.

I don't have this problem running Simcity 2013 on OSX and Windows.

[MikeyBugs95 29]

Simtropolis alone has over 500+ mods for Simcity 2013 and the number grows every month.

This is much faster rate than Simcity 4 modding.

Lastly Simcity 4 is horribly unoptimized causing it to crash frequently even on high end hardware.

I don't have this problem running Simcity 2013 on OSX and Windows.

I won't discuss the not mentioned as I have neither the time nor desire to do so.

The STEX only has 347 mods for SC13. How many are for SC4? 500? 1,000? 10,000? The answer is 18,324. That means that the SC4 section has 52.807 times as many mods as the SC13 section so far. I do not doubt that when modding for SC4 was new, mods also came out at a blistering pace

And SC4 was released in 2003... Technology has increased and the computers and tech from that time have been so vastly surpassed by the tech from today. The game most likely is not compatible with the hardware you have in your computer. For me, it runs fine on my 2 year old laptop. SC13 has problems running on my laptop. It minimizes constantly and progressively rubs slower the bigger my city gets. 11-12 years from, someone will probably be saying that SC13 is also horribly unoptimized. I have Win7 on my laptop, by the way.

[Cyclone Boom 17,031]

Reminder:

 

Both games are different in many ways, and should really be treated in isolation. With SC13 being a reboot of the franchise, released 10 years after SC4, it's like comparing apples to oranges. From the hardware requirements, style of graphics, UI, core simulation, region play, game modes, zoning, transportation options, modding capabilities, etc... the list goes on. The bottom line is they're so dissimilar!
 

People are rightly entitled to their own opinions, and may prefer one game over the other. However, it's not beneficial to drive this into another debate over which game is liked the most. Instead, let's show appreciation for them as separate games in their own right.

 

Thanks.

[QuantumChicken 89]

I like all the SimCity games in their own ways. I have grown attached to SimCity 4 Deluxe though, but SimCity 2013 is still pretty fun. I did cause the black death in my city in SC2013 because I was not used to the GlassBox engine and its' mechanics, but I figured it out in the end.

[crishy 57]

Both games are definitively different on their own ways.

 

Though I never experienced commuting and RCI/demand problems in SC4, not as described above anyway lol.

 

SC13 reminds me of my SC3000 vanilla days. Nice, short, and easy. I did have a very hard time adjusting from SC3000 to SC4 because of differences with traffic and finances haha. Now that I am used to it though it is hard to go to either one.

[Xenocity 343]

Both games are definitively different on their own ways.

 

Though I never experienced commuting and RCI/demand problems in SC4, not as described above anyway lol.

 

SC13 reminds me of my SC3000 vanilla days. Nice, short, and easy. I did have a very hard time adjusting from SC3000 to SC4 because of differences with traffic and finances haha. Now that I am used to it though it is hard to go to either one.

Maybe you have a special version.

 

anyways if anyone is interested on how much more interconnected Simcity 4 cities, can read these threads.

http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/58542/whats-the-exact-population-limit-at-which-demand-for-agriculture-disappears

 

You cannot reach the higher stages of development in Simcity 4 without developing the region as a whole.

Simcity 2013 on the other hand does not require regional development to reach the highest level of development. 

 

NAM was created to fix the traffic pathfinding problem present in Simcity 4.

[Akeem J Lenoir 9]

 

Both games are definitively different on their own ways.

 

Though I never experienced commuting and RCI/demand problems in SC4, not as described above anyway lol.

 

SC13 reminds me of my SC3000 vanilla days. Nice, short, and easy. I did have a very hard time adjusting from SC3000 to SC4 because of differences with traffic and finances haha. Now that I am used to it though it is hard to go to either one.

Maybe you have a special version.

 

anyways if anyone is interested on how much more interconnected Simcity 4 cities, can read these threads.

http://gaming.stackexchange.com/questions/58542/whats-the-exact-population-limit-at-which-demand-for-agriculture-disappears

 

You cannot reach the higher stages of development in Simcity 4 without developing the region as a whole.

Simcity 2013 on the other hand does not require regional development to reach the highest level of development. 

 

NAM was created to fix the traffic pathfinding problem present in Simcity 4.

 

 

Quite a few issues were resolved with the Rush Hour expansion, without the modding community. Yes, there were still issues with SC4, but the Rush Hour expansion was essentially the game's evolve, much as the Cities to Tomorrow expansion is to SC2013. 

Reminder:

 

Both games are different in many ways, and should really be treated in isolation. With SC13 being a reboot of the franchise, released 10 years after SC4, it's like comparing apples to oranges. From the hardware requirements, style of graphics, UI, core simulation, region play, game modes, zoning, transportation options, modding capabilities, etc... the list goes on. The bottom line is they're so dissimilar!

 

People are rightly entitled to their own opinions, and may prefer one game over the other. However, it's not beneficial to drive this into another debate over which game is liked the most. Instead, let's show appreciation for them as separate games in their own right.

 

Thanks.

 

I do agree that we're comparing apples to oranges; however, this is only because loyalist wanted SC5, and not some reboot. Perhaps, it'll all be moot in a few years, when either the modding transforms this game into our wildest dreams, or Maxis and EA decides they want to run the makers of Cities XXL and Cities Skylines out of business. As they always say, time heals all wounds. LOL.

[iRowzie 16]

Okkie, I got SC4 and I like it. Gosh, all of the things SC4 has that SC2013 doesn't! Ouch.

[Xenocity 343]

Okkie, I got SC4 and I like it. Gosh, all of the things SC4 has that SC2013 doesn't! Ouch.

If you think that's bad, you've obviously never played Simcity 2000 Network Edition and Simcity 2000 (Saturn).

Those 2 versions have more content and features than Simcity 3000/3000U, Simcity 4 Deluxe and Simcity 2013 put together.

[crishy 57]

Three posts over five years are hardly relevant on how glitchy a game is to a broad population of players. I have owned multiple copies of SC4 + RH and Deluxe, and played in multiple computers without any problems whatsoever. Granted I never played the original game and without the latest EA update so I cannot attest to the glitches and how gamebreaking they were on the original non updated game, if any. We can point out that SC13 had a terrible launch and an online mode only mode with saving/loading and rollback problems that took a year to be solved. Point is that both games with the updates are more than playable right now.

 

SC2000 Network has some features the other games do not have but it misses others. I would hardly consider it has having significantly more features than either game. Either way it lacks the variety of mods available to the newer two games. And as a different game with different features, as stated in the analogy above, people may or may not care for these specific features.

[Xenocity 343]

Three posts over five years are hardly relevant on how glitchy a game is to a broad population of players. I have owned multiple copies of SC4 + RH and Deluxe, and played in multiple computers without any problems whatsoever. Granted I never played the original game and without the latest EA update so I cannot attest to the glitches and how gamebreaking they were on the original non updated game, if any. We can point out that SC13 had a terrible launch and an online mode only mode with saving/loading and rollback problems that took a year to be solved. Point is that both games with the updates are more than playable right now.

 

SC2000 Network has some features the other games do not have but it misses others. I would hardly consider it has having significantly more features than either game. Either way it lacks the variety of mods available to the newer two games. And as a different game with different features, as stated in the analogy above, people may or may not care for these specific features.

Those threads posted details how the demand caps and regional economy works in Simcity 4 forcing you to actually build up the region to achieve maximum development of a given city. 

 

Neither Simcity  2013 and Simcity 4 are fully playable as intended by Maxis.

They are playable sure, but if you want either game to be fully playable you have to add mods, even those made by Maxis.

Both games are as playable as Assassins Creed Unity and Halo: MCC (on Xbox One) [These are two of the buggiest games released in recent memory]

 

As for Simcity 4, the original release was critically bug ridden and proned to crashing.

Part of this was due to the minimum specs needed to run SC4 listed on box and the game wasn't playing nice with certain graphic cards.

Simcity fans were quite vocal over the fact they had to upgrade their computers to fully run the game.

Rush Hour fixed some of the issues.

Then one more patch was released online to address more bugs.

Maxis then announced all their planned expansion packs and patches were canceled due to the low sales of Simcity 4 and disasterious sales of Rush Hour (Only 1/3rd of Simcity 4 owners bought the pack).

 

So Maxis  opened the game up to modders, so the modders could fix the game and stop complaining about how broken the game was.

 

Simcity 2013's problems came from the development schedule and from market research on why Simcity 4 is the lowest selling main line Simcity title.

Maxis was not allowed to delay Simcity 2013, due to EA holding firm on the Windows release.

Maxis also admitted to scaling down the Glassbox engine, so users wouldn't have to upgrade their PCs to play the game.

Maxis didn't want a repeated of the Simcity 4 launch.

 

Anyways before Will Wright left Maxis in 2008, he said that Simcity 4 had become too complicated for most fans, causing Simcity 4 to be a disaster sales wise (it might not have broke 1 million sales yet, since EA quit releasing the numbers for it some time ago).

 

Simcity 2013 still could use a few more patches to fix many lingering bugs.

 

Right now Simcity 3000 is still the best selling mainline Simcity game with over 5 million copies sold, with Simcity 2013 right behind it in sales.

 

 

FYI: Simtropolis is the home to the main Simcity 4 and Simcity 2013 modding communities.

Both boards have open threads where you can post your suggestions.

The Simcity 4 board has a modding thread where they take advice and discuss what they plan on fixing next.

[iRowzie 16]

True, I never had played those. My brothers have. But not me. I'm a graphic maniac.

[CapTon 592]

I think that SimCity 4 is more of an actual simulation game in terms of management and thinking in terms of a "businessman", while SC2013 is geared more towards how your city looks and not so much functionality (not saying functionality isn't important, it's just how I think). I've only been playing SC4 for about four years, and I've been playing SC2013 since the day of launch.

 

Hardcore SC4 players can't stand SC2013, and hardcore SC2013 can't stand SC4. However, I enjoy both games .